The primitive-archetypal symbols of the "good druid" Brancus
Brancusi used both consciously and unconsciously primitive, archetypal symbols, in the sense shown by Jungian psychology. Here are just the main ones: the phallic symbol in "Princess X" ("Head of Princess Marie Bonaparte"), the portrait spiral of James Joyce and other spirals forged from iron, the "rhomboids" of the Column of Infinity, the head of the Sleeping Muse, the egg of the Newborn and of "The Beginning of the World", the circles in the Gate of the Kiss, the Table of Silence and the Alley of Chairs.
A series of articles show that Brancusi's primitivism has its sources in Romanian and African folklore. However, there are also some that emerged brilliantly from his subconscious, through the collective subconscious defined by psychologist Carl Jung. Thus, during Brancusi's creative period, Neolithic spirals were little known. Also, Brâncuși did not have access to the rhombuses that we find today in Neolithic or even Paleolithic artifacts.
Brâncuși encountered strong opposition in his time when he exhibited Princess X, but today we know very well that the phallic symbol had absolutely no obscene connotation in prehistory.
Interestingly, the woman-phallus dualism captured by Brâncuși has been, in recent years, the subject of several articles and studies on Neolithic woman-phallus statuettes.
In the second part, without bibliography, I capture in Brâncuși not only an anchoring in primitivism, but also an absolutely unique concern for the sciences of the future.
Erik Satie: "dear good druid"
The National Museum of Art exhibits a reconstruction of the ballet costume made by Brâncuși for the "Gymnopediae" of musician Erik Satie. The friendship between the two artists is evoked in the article "In the Labyrinth with Barbu Brezianu. Brâncuși, Music and Dance", by Virginia Barbu, published by the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy.
https://www.istoria-artei.ro/resources/files/SCIA.AP2011-11-V.%20Barbu-Brezianu-Brancusi.pdf
"The friendship between Satie, ten years older, and the Romanian sculptor, which documents place between 1914-1923, ended by Satie's death in 1925, was based on the magnetic attraction between two different personalities, who found surprising affinities. They apparently met in opposites: one was too complicated, sophisticated to the point of mania, having reached simplicity through disabuse, the other was too simple, primitive enough to access refinement. Satie had a bourgeois appearance, with a lornion, bowler hat, umbrella and gaiters, displaying a provocative clownish humility, misunderstood by many of his contemporaries who saw in his art 'simplistic music with bizarre titles'. Brâncuşi, "to whom Satie addresses in a letter with 'Cher Bon Druide', lived according to ancient Romanian customs in his home in the middle of Paris that could pass for an alchemist's workshop, scandalizing some who saw pornographic allusions in his art, while an Apollinaire found his works to be 'among the most refined' (1912)," reports Virginia Barbu.
We note that the musician Satie called the "primitive" Brâncuși 'dear good druid'.
Brâncuși did not hide that he found inspiration in the cradle of humanity.
Let's review a few: the phallic symbol in "Princess X" ("Head of Princess Marie Bonaparte"), James Joyce's portrait spiral, the "rhomboids" of the Infinity Column, the head of the Sleeping Muse, the Newborn's egg, the circles in the Kissing Gate, the Table of Silence and the Alley of Chairs. And the list of Brâncuși's primitive-archetypal symbols remains open.
Genius is also a measure of the personal ability or mastery to access the fundamental values of the collective subconscious
Brâncuși's primitivism consists in the influence of Romanian folk art and ancestral cultures on his sculptures, which move away from academic detail in favor of essential, geometric forms and a focus on the essence of the object. Brancusi rejected academicism, chose to work with traditional materials, and remained attached to the rural lifestyle, even within the Parisian avant-garde, which made him an interesting "outsider" in the art world.
It is generally accepted that Brancusi left Rodin's studio to develop his own style, inspired by cultures considered "primitive" and by Romanian folk tradition.
The vein I am exploring would be the fact that, in his search for essences, Brancusi touched the strings of the subconscious as defined by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
"I polished the material to find the continuous line. And when I realized that I could not find it, I stopped; it was as if someone unseen had touched my hands," Brancusi said. And Jungian psychoanalysis consecrates the idea of the interconnection between the subconscious and the essence of matter.
Thus, in the book "Man and His Symbols", coordinated by Carl Jung (Trei Publishing House), we find, on page 361, the quote by Aniela Jaffé: "Often (abstract paintings) turn out to be, more or less, images of nature itself, demonstrating an amazing similarity with the molecular structure of the organic and inorganic elements of nature. This is a fabulous fact. Pure abstraction has become an image of concrete nature. Jung can give us the key to understanding here. 'The deeper layers of the psyche - says Carl Jung - lose, as the depth and darkness increase, their individual uniqueness., that is, with the approach to autonomous functional systems, they become more and more collective, until, in the materiality of the body, namely in chemical bodies, they will become universal and will also be extinguished. The carbon of the organism is simply carbon. Therefore, the psyche is simply '. A comparison of the paintings abstracts with micro-photographs from the atomic world show that the complete abstraction of imaginative art has become, in a surprising and unnoticed way, 'naturalistic', its subject being the elements of matter".
An example of painting in a trance state, thus accessing the subconscious, and very similar to micro-matter, is that of the American artist Paul Jackson Pollock, who died a year before Brâncuși. Incidentally, Aniela Jaffé pays a lot of attention to this American painter who enjoyed immense success.
Obviously, "polishing in search of the continuous line until he was hit in the hand", and Brâncuși practically probed the border between abstract art and matter.
Indeed, the fact that Brancusi "flirted" with the subconscious attracted the recognition of the critic Herbert Read, who regarded him even higher than the master Auguste Rodin.
A quote attributed, I don't know how truthfully, to Herbert Read by a number of Romanian websites, including the Brancusi Center, reads as follows: "Three milestones measure, in Europe, the history of Sculpture: Phidias – Michelangelo – Brancusi..."
Herbert Read was an admirer of Carl Jung and integrated Jungian concepts, especially archetypes and the collective unconscious, into his own work on art and aesthetics. While Jung focused on psychology, Read, as a poet and art critic, applied Jung's ideas to the field of artistic creation, discussing how archetypal symbols appear in art and how art can be a path to exploring the psyche. Carl Jung's book "The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature" was edited by Herbert Read himself.
"The material with which Brâncuși works is his interior, like the first world of his ancestors; the forms come from meditation and from a collective subconscious, already brought to light in popular art.", writes Viorica Răduță in her article "Brâncuși, towards an art of the temple (2)" https://citeste-ma.ro/brancusi-spre-o-arta-a-templuui-2/
"Princess X" and the ancestral symbol of the phallus
At least through his experience with the Maharajah of Indore, who ordered him to build a temple for him, Brancusi certainly had contact with Hindu spirituality.
Here is a quote from page 113 of the book "Man and His Symbols", edited by Carl Jung (Trei Publishing House): "The phallus functions as an all-encompassing symbol in Hindu religion (...) When an educated Hindu talks to you about the lingam (the phallus that represents the god Shiva in Hindu mythology), you will hear things that Westerners would never associate with the penis. The lingam is certainly not an obscene allusion".
Thus, the phallus has been a symbol of fertility since the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
"Hohle Fels" is a phallus about 28 millennia old, discovered in Germany in 2004.
In Sayburc, a town in southeastern Turkey, a drawing was found depicting a man holding his penis under the gaze of two leopards.
Another erect man was drawn in the Lascaux cave in France, next to a gutted bison.
Similar cave drawings, about 20 millennia old, were found in the "Los Casares" cave - Guadalajara and in the Laussel shelter in Dordogne - France.
Suggestive images and other discoveries are presented in the article:
https://eaucongress.uroweb.org/paleolithic-legacy-from-genital-decoration-to-penile-mutilation/
An interesting aspect is the phallic character of some female statuettes, as was found in the Italian figurines "Trasimeno" and "Cozzo Busonè", with suggestive images, including from the Neolithic Starcevo-Criș culture, which illustrate the following two articles published by the "Preistorie in Italia" Association:
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuina-del-trasimeno-pg/
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
In one of these articles, Maria Gimbutas herself is quoted: "... in Ancient Europe, the phallus is far from being the obscene symbol that it is today. Rather, it is similar to that lingam still present in India: a sacred cosmic pillar inherited from the Neolithic civilization of the Indus Valley. One of the first representations of the genus in Europe is constituted by the fusion of the phallus with the divine body of the Goddess, which appears from the Upper Paleolithic onwards. Some ‘Venus’ goddesses from this period have phallic heads without any facial features. They have been found in Savignano and on Lake Trasimeno in northern Italy (attributed to the Gravettian), in the Weinberg cave in Mauern, Bavaria (Upper Perigordian or Gravettian). Placard, in the Charente region, France (Magdalenian I-II)”.
In the following article we find an image of statues from the Neolithic Starčevo-Criș Culture entitled "female statuette with phallic head and testicle - like underside, from Starcevo, Hungary - Gimbutas 2008" - "Statuetă feminină cu cap phallic și parte inferno simulă un testicul, din Starcevo, Ungaria - Gimbutas 2008."
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
Remarkably, the dual feminine-phallic image in the article above bears a striking resemblance to the statutes of the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture entitled "The Council of the Goddesses" from Poduri - Bacău County, from Isaiia - Iași County or from Sabatinovka.
The Spiral in Brancusi and in the Neolithic
Another ancient archetypal symbol is the spiral, also found in Brancusi's portrait of James Joyce (1929) but also in two other works. Thus, on November 30, 2010, Brancusi's works entitled "Large spiral in iron" and "Small spiral in iron" were sold, images of which can still be found on MutualArt.
Spirals were a basic motif of the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture but are also found on a series of Neolithic megaliths scattered on the continent and on remote islands. Some examples: Tarxien (Malta), Newgrange (Ireland), Piodao/Chaz D'Egua (Portugal), Pierowall (Scotland), Bardal (Norway), Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), La Zarza-La Zarcita (La Palma - Canary Islands), Castelluccio (Sicily), Yangshao (China), etc.
We also note that in Maramureș County, the Dacian gold spirals from Sarasău were discovered.
And it would be illogical to believe that Neolithic people moved and carved huge blocks of stone just for some random ornaments, so the spirals must have had a close connection with their consciousness. And a provocative explanation was offered by South African researchers D. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, through the book (), published by Thames & Hudson in 2005. A summary can be found on the Wikipedia page dedicated to this remarkable book that debates the role of "modified" human consciousness in the development of Neolithic art and religion. Thus, according to the book "Inside the Neolithic Mind" the spiral is associated with a stage of altered consciousness that leads to visionary experiences. Moreover, there are a number of authors who see spirals as a symbol of the passage of souls towards immortality. Looking at the ancient megaliths scattered all over the world, there is a general perception that the carved spirals would have reflected eternity. It is also remarkable that in regressive hypnosis experiences, when you come to face the essence of your own soul-consciousness, perceptions of spiraling vortexes are common.
The "Rhomboids" of the Infinite Column - early signs
In the 1967-1968 archaeological excavation campaign, carried out at Cuina Turcului, on the Danube Gorge, Vasile Boroneanţ and Alexandru Păunescu discovered an equine phalanx, with vertically overlapping rhombuses, incised into the bone. More recent analyses have shown that the artifact is 13 millennia old.
Also, at Cârcea - Gumelnița Neolithic Culture, a clay vessel was found, also inscribed with aligned rhombuses.
Then a Starčevo-Criș vessel with rhombuses was also discovered in Alba County: "Iconography of a Starčevo-Criș ceramic vessel discovered at Acmariu (Blandiana commune, Alba County)".
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315727654_Iconografia_unui_vas_ceramic_Starcevo-Cris_descoperit_la_Acmariu_comuna_Blandiana_judetul_Alba From the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture, at the National Museum of the Republic of Moldova we find an artifact "Dancing with the Deer" on which a kind of column of infinity is also highlighted.
Finally, the Dacian Treasure from Hînova - Mehedinți County is kept in the Treasure Hall of the National Museum of History of Romania. One of the most interesting pieces is a necklace made up of 255 rhombohedral beads, similar to the Column of Infinity. Articles have been written about this similarity.
The Sleeping Muse and Prehistoric Heads
I am very sorry that I do not remember in which archaeological site I have seen heads very similar to Brancusi's Sleeping Muse at the moment, but I hope that specialists in universal prehistory know what I am thinking.
Anyway, I note three examples of somewhat similar heads, namely those from Tell Aswad - Syria, Ain Ghazal - Jordan and Jericho - Palestine.
Tell Aswad - Syria:
https://antiquatedantiquarian.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-painted-skull.html
Ain Ghazal - Jordan:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DaujaiAbq9sA&psig=AOvVaw3yLaYng8bo hOCyngGDLG_t&ust=1760861345155000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBgQjhxqFwoTCNjBiu6lrZADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
Jericho - Palestine:
https://www.thoughtco.com/jericho-palestine-archaeology-of-ancient-city-171414
The egg of the "Newborn" and from "The Beginning of the World" vs. Ancient Cosmic Eggs
In his works "Newborn" and "The Beginning of the World", Brâncuși captures concepts far removed in time and space.
A seven-thousand-year-old cosmic egg was found in Silves, Portugal, with a kind of more rounded infinite column inscribed on it.
But the myth of the cosmic egg has been encountered on several continents.
In the Dogon mythology of Burkina Faso, the creator god Amma takes the form of an egg.
In China, various versions of the myth of the cosmic egg are linked to its creator, Pangu. It is said that the sky and the earth initially existed in a formless state, like a hen's egg. The egg opens and splits after 18,000 years: the light part rose to become the sky, and the heavy part sank to become the earth.
In India, in a Vedic myth recorded in the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, the earliest phase of the cosmos involves a primordial ocean from which an egg emerged. Once the egg split, the process of forming the sky (upper) and the earth (lower) began over the course of one hundred divine years.
In Japan, in the Nihon Shoki, there was a chaotic state in the beginning that was shaped like an egg.
In the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, there is a myth about the world being created from fragments of an egg.
The ancient Egyptians accepted several creation myths as valid, including those of the Hermopolitan, Heliopolitan, and Memphite theologies. The myth of the cosmic egg can be found at Hermopolis.
Ideas similar to the myth of the cosmic egg are mentioned in two different sources in Greek and Roman mythology. One is in the Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro, who lived in the 1st century BC. According to Varro, the heavens and the earth can be likened, respectively, to an eggshell and its yolk. The second mention is found in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, although from an oppositional point of view, insofar as Clement is presented as summarizing a ridiculous cosmological belief found among the pagans: according to the description given, there is a primordial chaos which, in time, solidified into an egg.
In Zoroastrian cosmography, the heavens were considered to be spherical, with an outer boundary (called parkān), an idea that probably dates back to Sumerian times. The earth is also spherical and exists within the spherical heavens. To help convey this cosmology, a number of ancient writers, including Empedocles, came up with the analogy of an egg: the spherical and bounded outer heaven is like the outer shell, while the earth is represented by the round inner yolk.
In Oceania, Ta'aroa was the supreme creator deity of Tahiti, the author of life and death, and created the world from a cosmic egg, creating the heavens and the earth.
The circle, as an archetypal symbol In Brâncuși, the circle appears especially in the Monumental Complex which practically constitutes a mandala, an axis mundi of the heart of the city of Târgu Jiu, with reference to the Gate of the Kiss, the Table of Silence and the Alley of Chairs.
From the Neolithic cultures, a suggestive artifact has been preserved from the Cucuteni Culture, with concentric circles, similar to the drawing that illustrates Heaven in the Wikipedia sense.
Starting on page 319 of the book "Man and His Symbols", Aniela Jaffé dedicates the sub-chapter "The Symbol of the Circle" beginning it as follows: "The circle expresses the whole of the psyche, with all its aspects, including the relationship between man and nature. Whether the symbol of the circle appears in primitive rites of sun worship or in modern religions, in myths or in dreams, in mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks, in the basic plans of cities or in the spherical theoretical models of ancient astronomers, it always points to the single and most important aspect of life - its fundamental totality".
A possible valuable duality of the circle is in the Gate of the Kiss, where, on the one hand, it suggests a stylized kiss, but on the other hand it can lead us to think about the symbolic importance of dividing or cutting the circle - as Aniela Jaffé shows.
"In the visual arts of India and the Far East, the circle divided into four or eight is the model of religious imagery usually used as a meditation tool," says Aniela Jaffé on page 320. She continues on the next page: "In many cases, the halo of Christ is divided into four, a significant allusion to his sufferings as the Son of Man and his death on the cross - which makes him a symbol of differentiated totality. On the walls of old Romanesque churches, abstract circular figures can sometimes be seen; these forms probably have ancient pagan customs. In non-Christian art, such circles are called 'sun wheels.' They appear in stone engravings dating from the Neolithic period, even before the invention of the wheel itself. As Jung indicated, the term 'sun wheel' denotes only the external appearance of the figure. What always really mattered was the experience of an archetypal inner image, which Stone Age man rendered in his art, with as great a faith as when he drew bulls, gazelles or wild horses."
In context, I also mention the doctoral thesis "Influenţa sculpturii neolithic în arta contemporană", by Ana Maria Ceară.
https://unarte.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/REZUMAT-Romana-Ana-Maria-Ceara.pdf
Thus, it is worth highlighting sub-chapter V.3.6. Brâncuşi – Presence-in-the-world and the Kiss at the Gates of Perception
Thus, the title of the sub-chapter makes a clear reference to the book "The Gates of Perception" by Aldous Huxley in which the author marches on the idea of the collective subconscious, just like Carl Jung, even if in an even bolder way.
"In this context, the image, the sign and the symbol represent three fundamental forms of visual communication, essential in the transmission and interpretation of cultural messages. The study starts from the premise that Neolithic art, through its semiotic and stylistic language, communicates not only a historical past, but also an archetypal dimension that transcends time and space.", shows Ana Maria Ceară in her doctoral thesis.
This is exactly the message of Carl Jung, that archetypal symbols "survive" since the cradle of humanity and that they can shine from the deep consciousness of brilliant artists, such as Brâncuși.
Brancusi's Primitivism, from the Perspective of Sculptor Ana Ionescu The thesis summary "Constantin Brancusi's 'Other': Primitivism, the Kissing Gate and the Functions of the Emigrant Artist's Studio", written by sculptor Ana Ionescu, is worth reading.
Here it is: "This thesis will analyze how Constantin Brancusi's primitivist sculpture is perceived in the context of his own 'Otherness' in Parisian circles between the 1920s and 1940s. Brancusi is both 'Otherness' and 'The Other' in this environment: appropriating both from non-Western cultures and from an affirmed ethnographic past of his native Romania. Through form, technique and subject matter, Brancusi adheres to and transforms primitivism from the beginning of the 20th century. Although scholars have extensively researched Brâncuși’s sculpture, including the use of sub-Saharan sources and references, no secondary source considers this in relation to his public persona as “Primitive” or “Other” in the context of the Parisian avant-garde of the interwar period. The ongoing debates about the use of Romanian folk art or African art have not taken into account, for example, the social role of the artist and the concerted public persona in this regard. Romanian, Anglo-American, and Francophone scholars also disagree on how to analyze Africanizing and folkloric sources. Thus, after having reformulated Brâncuși’s “primitive” sculpture and persona by comparing and contrasting what remain nationalist agendas in art history, I will focus in particular on one of Brâncuși’s seminal works, The Gate of the Kiss from 1937–1938. The monumental ensemble at Târgu Jiu, which includes the Kissing Gate, is a particularly interesting case study for examining the connection between the issues underlying this thesis. Commissioned by an independent but state-approved association in 1937, Romania exhibited it at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris, where it achieved both national and international recognition. Aspects of its commissioning, exhibition, and reception are the result not only of the sculpture itself, but also of the carefully crafted “image” that Brâncuși promoted primarily through studio visits, as venues for promoting his process and artistic personality. Brâncuși’s studio functioned as a hybrid space for living, working, socializing, exhibiting, and teaching, and, I will argue, as a self-portrait, negotiating his Romanian heritage and his Africanizing primitivism. To carefully analyze these strategies, both material and immaterial, archival sources from the Kandinsky Archives, the Brummer Gallery Archives, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, and the 1937 Universal Exhibition will be examined through a decidedly 'decolonizing' art historical perspective.
From Paul Gauguin to Brancusi. In Search of the Primitive (II) What connection exists between the art of Paul Gauguin and that of Constantin Brancusi, their modernism and primitivism, as well as between Tahiti, Africa and Gorj, is explained to us by Professor Roxana Zanea, in the second part of an exhaustive analysis entitled "From Paul Gauguin to Brancusi. In Search of the Primitive (II)" and published by Matricea Românească.
"In Brancusi, the Rooster is actually reduced to its cry, at the key moment when it rises towards the sun. The fish, the seal, the turtle, the Wisdom of the Earth are all primordialities of a Brancusiian Ark, a Noah's Ark that tends to recreate the world", says Roxana Zanea, thus bringing to the stage another mythological concept, Noah's Ark.
Roxana Zanea also highlights something important: "The conclusion of art critics is obvious: Brâncuși's art has its sources in the ancestral tradition of anonymous folk craftsmen who, like those of African cultures, knew how to establish with the material they worked - wood, cloth, bronze, brass, stone, terracotta - through their processing, a strong connection with the spirits of their ancestors or with those of nature."
"Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Brancusi"
A 689-page book titled "Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Brancusi" was written by William Stanley Rubin and William Rubin.
The book's editors summarized it this way: "The crucial influence of tribal arts - especially those of Africa and Oceania - on modern painters and sculptors has long been recognized. Yet, surprisingly, this book is the first comprehensive scholarly treatment of the subject in the last half century, and the first to illustrate and discuss tribal works collected by avant-garde artists. In this visually stunning and intellectually challenging work, nineteen richly illustrated essays by fifteen scholars confront complex aesthetic, art historical, and sociological issues raised by this dramatic chapter in the history of modern art. The long introductory essay by William Rubin, while defining the parameters of modernist primitivism, sketches the history of Western attitudes toward primitive peoples and, in particular, their art, raising fundamental questions and correcting widespread misconceptions. Successive background chapters, written by historians of primitive art, trace the arrival and spread of African, Oceanic, Amerindian, and Eskimos in the West. In 1906, tribal sculpture was "discovered" by twentieth-century artists; these objects had suddenly become relevant due to changes in the nature of modern art itself. The main body of the book contains a series of essays on primitivism in the works of Gauguin, the Fauves, Picasso, Brancusi, the German Expressionists, Lipchitz, Modigliani, Klee, Giacometti, Moore, the Surrealists, the Abstract Expressionists. It concludes with a discussion of contemporary primitivist artists, including those involved in shamanistic works and ritual-inspired performances. Over a thousand illustrations juxtapose on the pages of these volumes works specific to Primitivism with those of the modernist masters, exploring their underlying affinities and illuminating complex issues of influence and relationship. The illustrated tribal works include not only a variety of masterpieces pertinent to modernist interests, but also other objects vital to the history of primitivism."
For example, Paul Klee used circles in his abstract-subconscious painting, an example being his painting "Limits of Reason".
Another essential quote about archaic symbols can be found in the article "Meet Constantin Brancusi: The Patriarch of Modern Sculpture", by archaeologist and art historian Stella Polyzoidou.
"The two main sources of inspiration for Brancusi were Romanian folk culture and African art. The former featured wood carving, which Brancusi incorporated into his sculptures. Romanian folk myths, stories and archaic symbols also influenced his choice of subjects," says Stella Polyzoidou.
“Primitive Intangible Heritage”, captured by Oana Șerban
From the introduction of the study “The Primitive Intangible Heritage Behind Brâncuși’s Modernist Tangible Forms of Culture” we find the following excerpt: “The main interest in this research is rather focused on deconstructing the nationalism behind Brâncuși’s legacy, arguing that it can ultimately be reduced to a powerful mixture of primitive, intangible forms of culture, such as mystical beliefs, folkloric narratives, peasant traditions and the values of Orthodox religion, reformulated and translated into modernist symbols represented by tangible forms of culture, such as individual sculptures and ensembles.”
An enlightening atl quote: "Brâncuși's artistic creations can undoubtedly be traced in the light of the early 20th-century Euro-American fascination with primitive objects, which implicated primitivism as a fashionable ethnocentric trend in modern and contemporary art production. On the one hand, such 'primitivism' should be understood as a visual narrative about the origin and sense of belonging that a nation portrays through recourse to cultural artifacts, symbols, and traditional expressions of local principles, values, and lifestyles."
Bibliography
Ana Ionescu, Constantin Brâncuși’s “Other”: Primitivism, the Porte du Baiser and the Functions of the Émigré Artist’s Studio, 2024
https://archive.johncabot.edu/items/123b8fbe-f427-4ede-b5ae-bd90d3674de7
Ana Maria Ceară, "The Influence of Neolithic Sculpture in Contemporary Art", 2025
https://unarte.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/REZUMAT-Romana-Ana-Maria-Ceara.pdf
Barbara Crescimanno, "Busoné figurines – Cozzo Busonè (AG)"
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
Carl Jung, M.-L. von Franz, Joseph L. Henderson, Jolande Jacobi, Aniela Jaffe "Man and his symbols" (Editura Trei), 2017
Cristinel Fântâneanu, Ioan Alexandru Bărbat, “Iconography of a Starčevo-Criş ceramic vessel discovered at Acmariu (Blandiana commune, Alba county)”, 2015
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315727654_Iconografia_unui_vas_ceramic_Starcevo-Cris_descoperit_la_Acmariu_comuna_Blandiana_judetul_Alba
Elvira Visciola, "Trasimeno Statuette (PG)"
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuina-del-trasimeno-pg/
Javier Angulo, "Paleolithic legacy: From genital decoration to penile mutilation", 2016
https://eaucongress.uroweb.org/paleolithic-legacy-from-genital-decoration-to-penile-mutilation/
Oana Șerban, "The Primitive Immaterial Legacy Behind Brâncuși's Modernist Tangible Forms of Culture", 2018
https://hermeneia.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/11_Serban.pdf
Roxana Zanea, "From Paul Gauguin to Constantin Brâncuși. In Search of the Primitive (II)"
https://matricea.ro/de-la-paul-gauguin-la-constantin-brancusi-in-cautarea-primitivului-ii/
Stella Polyzoidou, "Get to Know Constantin Brancusi: Patriarch of Modern Sculpture", 2021
https://www.thecollector.com/constantin-brancusi-modern-sculpture/
Viorica Răduţă, "Brâncuși, spre o artă a templuului (2)", 2023
https://citeste-ma.ro/brancusi-spre-o-arta-a-templuuli-2/
Virginia Barbu, "In the Labyrinth with Barbu Brezianu. Brâncuși, Music and Dance" https://www.istoria-artei.ro/resources/files/SCIA.AP2011-11-V.%20Barbu-Brezianu-Brancusi.pdf
William Stanley Rubin and William Rubin, "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Brâncuși, 1984
https://books.google.ro/books/about/Primitivism_in_20th_Century_Art_Brancusi.html?id=glK50AEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Mathematical-physical and metaphysical equations in Brâncuși's Monumental Complex
motto: "This is the message of my Pillar, guarded by the Table and the Gate… To burn like a flame… To transform yourself into lightning, connecting heaven and earth" (Brâncuși)
The President of Romania recently promulgated the law declaring 2026 as the "Year of Brâncuși" and the exhibitions of the master from Hobița continued this year touring major capitals of the world: Paris, Rome, Vienna and Amsterdam.
In context, it is worth highlighting something less well-known.
As early as 2017, Ion Popescu Bradiceni wrote about Brâncuși in Gorjeanul: "Also possessing the gift of narration, the great sculptor intuited quantum physics half a century earlier" (https://www.gorjeanul.ro/skriitorul-constantin-brancusi/).
I wholeheartedly agree with this hypothesis.
According to several exclusively Romanian sources, including CentrulBrancusi.ro (Doru Strîmbulescu, 2016), European sculpture was marked by three great figures: Phidias in antiquity, Michelangelo during the Renaissance, and Brâncuși in the 20th century.
The Greek letter Phi (φ) was introduced as a symbol for the golden ratio, 1.618:1, in reference to Phidias. It was said of Phidias: "When he sculpted gods, he integrated the golden ratio; when he sculpted mortals, he did not."
Several studies suggest that Michelangelo hid scientific knowledge in the Sistine Chapel.
But Brancusi?
The same question is asked by Doru Strîmbulescu: “Did the great sculptor bury in the stone of the Table of Silence and the Gate of the Kiss, or in the rhomboidal shapes of the Endless Column, a meaning, a truth, a significance, a code that we cannot decipher?”
Constantin Noica’s answer to the question of whether Brancusi had such intentions is affirmative. The idea that the ensemble was “designed as a becoming” could be proven by a simple measurement. However, Noica refrained from making that measurement, stating: “We feared that reality might not match the legend, causing it to collapse. Or, on the contrary, that it might match exactly, and the legend would lose its accuracy.”
Did the Sistine Chapel lose something because Michelangelo added a scientific dimension, or the gods sculpted by Phidias with the golden ratio? Certainly not.
Similarly, if Brancusi integrated quantum physics into his Ensemble, he did not lose precision, for quantum physics opens the door to pure magic. Nothing exact can fully understand it. We only tame it statistically, under the empire of probabilities.
"You don't know what I'm leaving you here"
These are the enigmatic words of the creator of the trilogy from Târgu Jiu However, calculations hidden by Brâncuși under skillful decimals can put the ensemble in a new light. Specifically, according to Wikipedia: The Table of Silence is 0.45 + 0.45 meters high, the Kissing Gate is 5.13 meters high and the Infinity Column is 29.35 meters high. I noticed that the square of 5.13 is the same as the product of 0.9 and 29.35. That is, we have equality, speaking of heights, between the ratios Table of Silence / Kissing Gate and Kissing Gate / Infinity Column.
This geometric-focal ratio reflects a fundamental law of optics. And the fact that Brâncuși was a luminous creator is revealed by several of his creations.
Furthermore, in the book “Brâncuși or How the Turtle Learned to Fly”, Moni Stănilă captures the master from Hobița as a mischievous man who liked to play cards. “Brâncuși is already making a philosophy of life out of confusing people, so that he can understand what they are made of,” warns Moni Stănilă.
So what would be the meaning of the Târgu Jiu riddle?
Here are some clues: having moved to Paris, Brâncuși was close to the sources and crucible of quantum mechanics. So it is not surprising that his monumental triplet can be seen as a huge model of the legendary micro-experiment launched by Thomas Young, but substantiated by the French Duke Louise de Broglie, a contemporary of Brâncuși.
See the image at the end.
The Column of Infinity represents the photon, the electron or another elementary particle of matter. In addition to the suggestion of trajectory, the shape of the Column formed by the “beads” dear to Brâncuși, also includes the undulating aspect, that is, precisely what Louise de Broglie postulated at the basis of quantum physics.
The Gate of the Kiss is the double slit in the experiment, that is, the two gates through which the piece of matter or the photon must pass in order to highlight its undulating character. Once again, Brancusi seems to have been a fool, because by calling it and giving it the appearance of a Gate with a single wide opening, he conceals the pair of slits that are, in fact, sculpted kisses. And the fact that the double slits are also narrow is exactly the idea of the quantum experiment.
Finally, the Table of Silence is the image of the decomposition, of the "fraying" of the micro-particle upon mysterious passage through the double slit. This is in the conditions in which it is notorious in quantum mechanics that the micro-particle passed through two slits will "eat itself up", very strangely, but necessarily. Anyway, the Table of Silence seems to suggest a vision, on a huge scale, of the structure of the atom.
The Alley of Chairs only emphasizes even better this quantum metaphor of Brancusi.
Brâncuși's inclination towards the depths of matter, light and essences in general was part of the artist's inner structure.
"Those who say that my works are abstract are imbeciles; what they call abstract is the purest realism, because reality is not represented by the external form, but by the idea behind it, the essence of things. I polished the matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized that I could not find it, I stopped; it was as if someone unseen had touched my hands," explained Brâncuși of his effort to reach the boundaries of micro-matter.
Contemporary with "God does not play dice", Einstein's famous anti-quantum quote, Brâncuși had his own vision of divinity and the apple of knowledge. That is, Brancusi interfered between his own beliefs: "To create like a God" and "We can never reach God, but the courage to travel towards Him remains important".
Scientific art-exhibitions about Brancusi
A fascinating example in the sense of quantum aspects is the inclusion of Brancusi, between Einstein, Bach, Da Vinci and Marie Curie, in a contemporary artistic project Quanticisme, launched by the French painter-sculptor Servant-Ermes in 2014. This project promoted the collaboration between culture and science, suggesting that great thinkers from various fields could contribute to the progress of research.
Also, the painter Romeo Niram organized an exhibition Brancusi: E = mc2, in which, obviously, he made correlations with Einstein.
Conclusions
Although forged in recent years, in Romania, including politically by legislating 2026 as the Year of Brâncuși, the art of the master from Hobița is far from being exhausted, revealing depths that deserve to be explored especially from the perspective of Jungian psychology, one of the most profound modern psychologies.
The second part of the article has a subjective note, leaving it up to the reader or observer to accept or not the hypothesis that Brâncuși reflected in his work from Târgu Jiu the most enigmatic experiment of quantum physics. But it gives me undisguised pleasure to note that the article was published by dozens of cultural or news sites, especially in Romanian but also in Italian and English. Of course, I remain open to criticism and observations.
A series of articles show that Brancusi's primitivism has its sources in Romanian and African folklore. However, there are also some that emerged brilliantly from his subconscious, through the collective subconscious defined by psychologist Carl Jung. Thus, during Brancusi's creative period, Neolithic spirals were little known. Also, Brâncuși did not have access to the rhombuses that we find today in Neolithic or even Paleolithic artifacts.
Brâncuși encountered strong opposition in his time when he exhibited Princess X, but today we know very well that the phallic symbol had absolutely no obscene connotation in prehistory.
Interestingly, the woman-phallus dualism captured by Brâncuși has been, in recent years, the subject of several articles and studies on Neolithic woman-phallus statuettes.
In the second part, without bibliography, I capture in Brâncuși not only an anchoring in primitivism, but also an absolutely unique concern for the sciences of the future.
Erik Satie: "dear good druid"
The National Museum of Art exhibits a reconstruction of the ballet costume made by Brâncuși for the "Gymnopediae" of musician Erik Satie. The friendship between the two artists is evoked in the article "In the Labyrinth with Barbu Brezianu. Brâncuși, Music and Dance", by Virginia Barbu, published by the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy.
https://www.istoria-artei.ro/resources/files/SCIA.AP2011-11-V.%20Barbu-Brezianu-Brancusi.pdf
"The friendship between Satie, ten years older, and the Romanian sculptor, which documents place between 1914-1923, ended by Satie's death in 1925, was based on the magnetic attraction between two different personalities, who found surprising affinities. They apparently met in opposites: one was too complicated, sophisticated to the point of mania, having reached simplicity through disabuse, the other was too simple, primitive enough to access refinement. Satie had a bourgeois appearance, with a lornion, bowler hat, umbrella and gaiters, displaying a provocative clownish humility, misunderstood by many of his contemporaries who saw in his art 'simplistic music with bizarre titles'. Brâncuşi, "to whom Satie addresses in a letter with 'Cher Bon Druide', lived according to ancient Romanian customs in his home in the middle of Paris that could pass for an alchemist's workshop, scandalizing some who saw pornographic allusions in his art, while an Apollinaire found his works to be 'among the most refined' (1912)," reports Virginia Barbu.
We note that the musician Satie called the "primitive" Brâncuși 'dear good druid'.
Brâncuși did not hide that he found inspiration in the cradle of humanity.
Let's review a few: the phallic symbol in "Princess X" ("Head of Princess Marie Bonaparte"), James Joyce's portrait spiral, the "rhomboids" of the Infinity Column, the head of the Sleeping Muse, the Newborn's egg, the circles in the Kissing Gate, the Table of Silence and the Alley of Chairs. And the list of Brâncuși's primitive-archetypal symbols remains open.
Genius is also a measure of the personal ability or mastery to access the fundamental values of the collective subconscious
Brâncuși's primitivism consists in the influence of Romanian folk art and ancestral cultures on his sculptures, which move away from academic detail in favor of essential, geometric forms and a focus on the essence of the object. Brancusi rejected academicism, chose to work with traditional materials, and remained attached to the rural lifestyle, even within the Parisian avant-garde, which made him an interesting "outsider" in the art world.
It is generally accepted that Brancusi left Rodin's studio to develop his own style, inspired by cultures considered "primitive" and by Romanian folk tradition.
The vein I am exploring would be the fact that, in his search for essences, Brancusi touched the strings of the subconscious as defined by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
"I polished the material to find the continuous line. And when I realized that I could not find it, I stopped; it was as if someone unseen had touched my hands," Brancusi said. And Jungian psychoanalysis consecrates the idea of the interconnection between the subconscious and the essence of matter.
Thus, in the book "Man and His Symbols", coordinated by Carl Jung (Trei Publishing House), we find, on page 361, the quote by Aniela Jaffé: "Often (abstract paintings) turn out to be, more or less, images of nature itself, demonstrating an amazing similarity with the molecular structure of the organic and inorganic elements of nature. This is a fabulous fact. Pure abstraction has become an image of concrete nature. Jung can give us the key to understanding here. 'The deeper layers of the psyche - says Carl Jung - lose, as the depth and darkness increase, their individual uniqueness.
An example of painting in a trance state, thus accessing the subconscious, and very similar to micro-matter, is that of the American artist Paul Jackson Pollock, who died a year before Brâncuși. Incidentally, Aniela Jaffé pays a lot of attention to this American painter who enjoyed immense success.
Obviously, "polishing in search of the continuous line until he was hit in the hand", and Brâncuși practically probed the border between abstract art and matter.
Indeed, the fact that Brancusi "flirted" with the subconscious attracted the recognition of the critic Herbert Read, who regarded him even higher than the master Auguste Rodin.
A quote attributed, I don't know how truthfully, to Herbert Read by a number of Romanian websites, including the Brancusi Center, reads as follows: "Three milestones measure, in Europe, the history of Sculpture: Phidias – Michelangelo – Brancusi..."
Herbert Read was an admirer of Carl Jung and integrated Jungian concepts, especially archetypes and the collective unconscious, into his own work on art and aesthetics. While Jung focused on psychology, Read, as a poet and art critic, applied Jung's ideas to the field of artistic creation, discussing how archetypal symbols appear in art and how art can be a path to exploring the psyche. Carl Jung's book "The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature" was edited by Herbert Read himself.
"The material with which Brâncuși works is his interior, like the first world of his ancestors; the forms come from meditation and from a collective subconscious, already brought to light in popular art.", writes Viorica Răduță in her article "Brâncuși, towards an art of the temple (2)" https://citeste-ma.ro/brancusi-spre-o-arta-a-templuui-2/
"Princess X" and the ancestral symbol of the phallus
At least through his experience with the Maharajah of Indore, who ordered him to build a temple for him, Brancusi certainly had contact with Hindu spirituality.
Here is a quote from page 113 of the book "Man and His Symbols", edited by Carl Jung (Trei Publishing House): "The phallus functions as an all-encompassing symbol in Hindu religion (...) When an educated Hindu talks to you about the lingam (the phallus that represents the god Shiva in Hindu mythology), you will hear things that Westerners would never associate with the penis. The lingam is certainly not an obscene allusion".
Thus, the phallus has been a symbol of fertility since the Paleolithic and Neolithic.
"Hohle Fels" is a phallus about 28 millennia old, discovered in Germany in 2004.
In Sayburc, a town in southeastern Turkey, a drawing was found depicting a man holding his penis under the gaze of two leopards.
Another erect man was drawn in the Lascaux cave in France, next to a gutted bison.
Similar cave drawings, about 20 millennia old, were found in the "Los Casares" cave - Guadalajara and in the Laussel shelter in Dordogne - France.
Suggestive images and other discoveries are presented in the article:
https://eaucongress.uroweb.org/paleolithic-legacy-from-genital-decoration-to-penile-mutilation/
An interesting aspect is the phallic character of some female statuettes, as was found in the Italian figurines "Trasimeno" and "Cozzo Busonè", with suggestive images, including from the Neolithic Starcevo-Criș culture, which illustrate the following two articles published by the "Preistorie in Italia" Association:
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuina-del-trasimeno-pg/
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
In one of these articles, Maria Gimbutas herself is quoted: "... in Ancient Europe, the phallus is far from being the obscene symbol that it is today. Rather, it is similar to that lingam still present in India: a sacred cosmic pillar inherited from the Neolithic civilization of the Indus Valley. One of the first representations of the genus in Europe is constituted by the fusion of the phallus with the divine body of the Goddess, which appears from the Upper Paleolithic onwards. Some ‘Venus’ goddesses from this period have phallic heads without any facial features. They have been found in Savignano and on Lake Trasimeno in northern Italy (attributed to the Gravettian), in the Weinberg cave in Mauern, Bavaria (Upper Perigordian or Gravettian). Placard, in the Charente region, France (Magdalenian I-II)”.
In the following article we find an image of statues from the Neolithic Starčevo-Criș Culture entitled "female statuette with phallic head and testicle - like underside, from Starcevo, Hungary - Gimbutas 2008" - "Statuetă feminină cu cap phallic și parte inferno simulă un testicul, din Starcevo, Ungaria - Gimbutas 2008."
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
Remarkably, the dual feminine-phallic image in the article above bears a striking resemblance to the statutes of the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture entitled "The Council of the Goddesses" from Poduri - Bacău County, from Isaiia - Iași County or from Sabatinovka.
The Spiral in Brancusi and in the Neolithic
Another ancient archetypal symbol is the spiral, also found in Brancusi's portrait of James Joyce (1929) but also in two other works. Thus, on November 30, 2010, Brancusi's works entitled "Large spiral in iron" and "Small spiral in iron" were sold, images of which can still be found on MutualArt.
Spirals were a basic motif of the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture but are also found on a series of Neolithic megaliths scattered on the continent and on remote islands. Some examples: Tarxien (Malta), Newgrange (Ireland), Piodao/Chaz D'Egua (Portugal), Pierowall (Scotland), Bardal (Norway), Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), La Zarza-La Zarcita (La Palma - Canary Islands), Castelluccio (Sicily), Yangshao (China), etc.
We also note that in Maramureș County, the Dacian gold spirals from Sarasău were discovered.
And it would be illogical to believe that Neolithic people moved and carved huge blocks of stone just for some random ornaments, so the spirals must have had a close connection with their consciousness. And a provocative explanation was offered by South African researchers D. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, through the book
The "Rhomboids" of the Infinite Column - early signs
In the 1967-1968 archaeological excavation campaign, carried out at Cuina Turcului, on the Danube Gorge, Vasile Boroneanţ and Alexandru Păunescu discovered an equine phalanx, with vertically overlapping rhombuses, incised into the bone. More recent analyses have shown that the artifact is 13 millennia old.
Also, at Cârcea - Gumelnița Neolithic Culture, a clay vessel was found, also inscribed with aligned rhombuses.
Then a Starčevo-Criș vessel with rhombuses was also discovered in Alba County: "Iconography of a Starčevo-Criș ceramic vessel discovered at Acmariu (Blandiana commune, Alba County)".
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315727654_Iconografia_unui_vas_ceramic_Starcevo-Cris_descoperit_la_Acmariu_comuna_Blandiana_judetul_Alba From the Neolithic Cucuteni Culture, at the National Museum of the Republic of Moldova we find an artifact "Dancing with the Deer" on which a kind of column of infinity is also highlighted.
Finally, the Dacian Treasure from Hînova - Mehedinți County is kept in the Treasure Hall of the National Museum of History of Romania. One of the most interesting pieces is a necklace made up of 255 rhombohedral beads, similar to the Column of Infinity. Articles have been written about this similarity.
The Sleeping Muse and Prehistoric Heads
I am very sorry that I do not remember in which archaeological site I have seen heads very similar to Brancusi's Sleeping Muse at the moment, but I hope that specialists in universal prehistory know what I am thinking.
Anyway, I note three examples of somewhat similar heads, namely those from Tell Aswad - Syria, Ain Ghazal - Jordan and Jericho - Palestine.
Tell Aswad - Syria:
https://antiquatedantiquarian.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-painted-skull.html
Ain Ghazal - Jordan:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DaujaiAbq9sA&psig=AOvVaw3yLaYng8bo hOCyngGDLG_t&ust=1760861345155000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBgQjhxqFwoTCNjBiu6lrZADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
Jericho - Palestine:
https://www.thoughtco.com/jericho-palestine-archaeology-of-ancient-city-171414
The egg of the "Newborn" and from "The Beginning of the World" vs. Ancient Cosmic Eggs
In his works "Newborn" and "The Beginning of the World", Brâncuși captures concepts far removed in time and space.
A seven-thousand-year-old cosmic egg was found in Silves, Portugal, with a kind of more rounded infinite column inscribed on it.
But the myth of the cosmic egg has been encountered on several continents.
In the Dogon mythology of Burkina Faso, the creator god Amma takes the form of an egg.
In China, various versions of the myth of the cosmic egg are linked to its creator, Pangu. It is said that the sky and the earth initially existed in a formless state, like a hen's egg. The egg opens and splits after 18,000 years: the light part rose to become the sky, and the heavy part sank to become the earth.
In India, in a Vedic myth recorded in the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, the earliest phase of the cosmos involves a primordial ocean from which an egg emerged. Once the egg split, the process of forming the sky (upper) and the earth (lower) began over the course of one hundred divine years.
In Japan, in the Nihon Shoki, there was a chaotic state in the beginning that was shaped like an egg.
In the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, there is a myth about the world being created from fragments of an egg.
The ancient Egyptians accepted several creation myths as valid, including those of the Hermopolitan, Heliopolitan, and Memphite theologies. The myth of the cosmic egg can be found at Hermopolis.
Ideas similar to the myth of the cosmic egg are mentioned in two different sources in Greek and Roman mythology. One is in the Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro, who lived in the 1st century BC. According to Varro, the heavens and the earth can be likened, respectively, to an eggshell and its yolk. The second mention is found in the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, although from an oppositional point of view, insofar as Clement is presented as summarizing a ridiculous cosmological belief found among the pagans: according to the description given, there is a primordial chaos which, in time, solidified into an egg.
In Zoroastrian cosmography, the heavens were considered to be spherical, with an outer boundary (called parkān), an idea that probably dates back to Sumerian times. The earth is also spherical and exists within the spherical heavens. To help convey this cosmology, a number of ancient writers, including Empedocles, came up with the analogy of an egg: the spherical and bounded outer heaven is like the outer shell, while the earth is represented by the round inner yolk.
In Oceania, Ta'aroa was the supreme creator deity of Tahiti, the author of life and death, and created the world from a cosmic egg, creating the heavens and the earth.
The circle, as an archetypal symbol In Brâncuși, the circle appears especially in the Monumental Complex which practically constitutes a mandala, an axis mundi of the heart of the city of Târgu Jiu, with reference to the Gate of the Kiss, the Table of Silence and the Alley of Chairs.
From the Neolithic cultures, a suggestive artifact has been preserved from the Cucuteni Culture, with concentric circles, similar to the drawing that illustrates Heaven in the Wikipedia sense.
Starting on page 319 of the book "Man and His Symbols", Aniela Jaffé dedicates the sub-chapter "The Symbol of the Circle" beginning it as follows: "The circle expresses the whole of the psyche, with all its aspects, including the relationship between man and nature. Whether the symbol of the circle appears in primitive rites of sun worship or in modern religions, in myths or in dreams, in mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks, in the basic plans of cities or in the spherical theoretical models of ancient astronomers, it always points to the single and most important aspect of life - its fundamental totality".
A possible valuable duality of the circle is in the Gate of the Kiss, where, on the one hand, it suggests a stylized kiss, but on the other hand it can lead us to think about the symbolic importance of dividing or cutting the circle - as Aniela Jaffé shows.
"In the visual arts of India and the Far East, the circle divided into four or eight is the model of religious imagery usually used as a meditation tool," says Aniela Jaffé on page 320. She continues on the next page: "In many cases, the halo of Christ is divided into four, a significant allusion to his sufferings as the Son of Man and his death on the cross - which makes him a symbol of differentiated totality. On the walls of old Romanesque churches, abstract circular figures can sometimes be seen; these forms probably have ancient pagan customs. In non-Christian art, such circles are called 'sun wheels.' They appear in stone engravings dating from the Neolithic period, even before the invention of the wheel itself. As Jung indicated, the term 'sun wheel' denotes only the external appearance of the figure. What always really mattered was the experience of an archetypal inner image, which Stone Age man rendered in his art, with as great a faith as when he drew bulls, gazelles or wild horses."
In context, I also mention the doctoral thesis "Influenţa sculpturii neolithic în arta contemporană", by Ana Maria Ceară.
https://unarte.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/REZUMAT-Romana-Ana-Maria-Ceara.pdf
Thus, it is worth highlighting sub-chapter V.3.6. Brâncuşi – Presence-in-the-world and the Kiss at the Gates of Perception
Thus, the title of the sub-chapter makes a clear reference to the book "The Gates of Perception" by Aldous Huxley in which the author marches on the idea of the collective subconscious, just like Carl Jung, even if in an even bolder way.
"In this context, the image, the sign and the symbol represent three fundamental forms of visual communication, essential in the transmission and interpretation of cultural messages. The study starts from the premise that Neolithic art, through its semiotic and stylistic language, communicates not only a historical past, but also an archetypal dimension that transcends time and space.", shows Ana Maria Ceară in her doctoral thesis.
This is exactly the message of Carl Jung, that archetypal symbols "survive" since the cradle of humanity and that they can shine from the deep consciousness of brilliant artists, such as Brâncuși.
Brancusi's Primitivism, from the Perspective of Sculptor Ana Ionescu The thesis summary "Constantin Brancusi's 'Other': Primitivism, the Kissing Gate and the Functions of the Emigrant Artist's Studio", written by sculptor Ana Ionescu, is worth reading.
Here it is: "This thesis will analyze how Constantin Brancusi's primitivist sculpture is perceived in the context of his own 'Otherness' in Parisian circles between the 1920s and 1940s. Brancusi is both 'Otherness' and 'The Other' in this environment: appropriating both from non-Western cultures and from an affirmed ethnographic past of his native Romania. Through form, technique and subject matter, Brancusi adheres to and transforms primitivism from the beginning of the 20th century. Although scholars have extensively researched Brâncuși’s sculpture, including the use of sub-Saharan sources and references, no secondary source considers this in relation to his public persona as “Primitive” or “Other” in the context of the Parisian avant-garde of the interwar period. The ongoing debates about the use of Romanian folk art or African art have not taken into account, for example, the social role of the artist and the concerted public persona in this regard. Romanian, Anglo-American, and Francophone scholars also disagree on how to analyze Africanizing and folkloric sources. Thus, after having reformulated Brâncuși’s “primitive” sculpture and persona by comparing and contrasting what remain nationalist agendas in art history, I will focus in particular on one of Brâncuși’s seminal works, The Gate of the Kiss from 1937–1938. The monumental ensemble at Târgu Jiu, which includes the Kissing Gate, is a particularly interesting case study for examining the connection between the issues underlying this thesis. Commissioned by an independent but state-approved association in 1937, Romania exhibited it at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris, where it achieved both national and international recognition. Aspects of its commissioning, exhibition, and reception are the result not only of the sculpture itself, but also of the carefully crafted “image” that Brâncuși promoted primarily through studio visits, as venues for promoting his process and artistic personality. Brâncuși’s studio functioned as a hybrid space for living, working, socializing, exhibiting, and teaching, and, I will argue, as a self-portrait, negotiating his Romanian heritage and his Africanizing primitivism. To carefully analyze these strategies, both material and immaterial, archival sources from the Kandinsky Archives, the Brummer Gallery Archives, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, and the 1937 Universal Exhibition will be examined through a decidedly 'decolonizing' art historical perspective.
From Paul Gauguin to Brancusi. In Search of the Primitive (II) What connection exists between the art of Paul Gauguin and that of Constantin Brancusi, their modernism and primitivism, as well as between Tahiti, Africa and Gorj, is explained to us by Professor Roxana Zanea, in the second part of an exhaustive analysis entitled "From Paul Gauguin to Brancusi. In Search of the Primitive (II)" and published by Matricea Românească.
"In Brancusi, the Rooster is actually reduced to its cry, at the key moment when it rises towards the sun. The fish, the seal, the turtle, the Wisdom of the Earth are all primordialities of a Brancusiian Ark, a Noah's Ark that tends to recreate the world", says Roxana Zanea, thus bringing to the stage another mythological concept, Noah's Ark.
Roxana Zanea also highlights something important: "The conclusion of art critics is obvious: Brâncuși's art has its sources in the ancestral tradition of anonymous folk craftsmen who, like those of African cultures, knew how to establish with the material they worked - wood, cloth, bronze, brass, stone, terracotta - through their processing, a strong connection with the spirits of their ancestors or with those of nature."
"Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Brancusi"
A 689-page book titled "Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Brancusi" was written by William Stanley Rubin and William Rubin.
The book's editors summarized it this way: "The crucial influence of tribal arts - especially those of Africa and Oceania - on modern painters and sculptors has long been recognized. Yet, surprisingly, this book is the first comprehensive scholarly treatment of the subject in the last half century, and the first to illustrate and discuss tribal works collected by avant-garde artists. In this visually stunning and intellectually challenging work, nineteen richly illustrated essays by fifteen scholars confront complex aesthetic, art historical, and sociological issues raised by this dramatic chapter in the history of modern art. The long introductory essay by William Rubin, while defining the parameters of modernist primitivism, sketches the history of Western attitudes toward primitive peoples and, in particular, their art, raising fundamental questions and correcting widespread misconceptions. Successive background chapters, written by historians of primitive art, trace the arrival and spread of African, Oceanic, Amerindian, and Eskimos in the West. In 1906, tribal sculpture was "discovered" by twentieth-century artists; these objects had suddenly become relevant due to changes in the nature of modern art itself. The main body of the book contains a series of essays on primitivism in the works of Gauguin, the Fauves, Picasso, Brancusi, the German Expressionists, Lipchitz, Modigliani, Klee, Giacometti, Moore, the Surrealists, the Abstract Expressionists. It concludes with a discussion of contemporary primitivist artists, including those involved in shamanistic works and ritual-inspired performances. Over a thousand illustrations juxtapose on the pages of these volumes works specific to Primitivism with those of the modernist masters, exploring their underlying affinities and illuminating complex issues of influence and relationship. The illustrated tribal works include not only a variety of masterpieces pertinent to modernist interests, but also other objects vital to the history of primitivism."
For example, Paul Klee used circles in his abstract-subconscious painting, an example being his painting "Limits of Reason".
Another essential quote about archaic symbols can be found in the article "Meet Constantin Brancusi: The Patriarch of Modern Sculpture", by archaeologist and art historian Stella Polyzoidou.
"The two main sources of inspiration for Brancusi were Romanian folk culture and African art. The former featured wood carving, which Brancusi incorporated into his sculptures. Romanian folk myths, stories and archaic symbols also influenced his choice of subjects," says Stella Polyzoidou.
“Primitive Intangible Heritage”, captured by Oana Șerban
From the introduction of the study “The Primitive Intangible Heritage Behind Brâncuși’s Modernist Tangible Forms of Culture” we find the following excerpt: “The main interest in this research is rather focused on deconstructing the nationalism behind Brâncuși’s legacy, arguing that it can ultimately be reduced to a powerful mixture of primitive, intangible forms of culture, such as mystical beliefs, folkloric narratives, peasant traditions and the values of Orthodox religion, reformulated and translated into modernist symbols represented by tangible forms of culture, such as individual sculptures and ensembles.”
An enlightening atl quote: "Brâncuși's artistic creations can undoubtedly be traced in the light of the early 20th-century Euro-American fascination with primitive objects, which implicated primitivism as a fashionable ethnocentric trend in modern and contemporary art production. On the one hand, such 'primitivism' should be understood as a visual narrative about the origin and sense of belonging that a nation portrays through recourse to cultural artifacts, symbols, and traditional expressions of local principles, values, and lifestyles."
Bibliography
Ana Ionescu, Constantin Brâncuși’s “Other”: Primitivism, the Porte du Baiser and the Functions of the Émigré Artist’s Studio, 2024
https://archive.johncabot.edu/items/123b8fbe-f427-4ede-b5ae-bd90d3674de7
Ana Maria Ceară, "The Influence of Neolithic Sculpture in Contemporary Art", 2025
https://unarte.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/REZUMAT-Romana-Ana-Maria-Ceara.pdf
Barbara Crescimanno, "Busoné figurines – Cozzo Busonè (AG)"
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuine-di-busone-cozzo-busone-ag/
Carl Jung, M.-L. von Franz, Joseph L. Henderson, Jolande Jacobi, Aniela Jaffe "Man and his symbols" (Editura Trei), 2017
Cristinel Fântâneanu, Ioan Alexandru Bărbat, “Iconography of a Starčevo-Criş ceramic vessel discovered at Acmariu (Blandiana commune, Alba county)”, 2015
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315727654_Iconografia_unui_vas_ceramic_Starcevo-Cris_descoperit_la_Acmariu_comuna_Blandiana_judetul_Alba
Elvira Visciola, "Trasimeno Statuette (PG)"
https://www.preistoriainitalia.it/en/scheda/statuina-del-trasimeno-pg/
Javier Angulo, "Paleolithic legacy: From genital decoration to penile mutilation", 2016
https://eaucongress.uroweb.org/paleolithic-legacy-from-genital-decoration-to-penile-mutilation/
Oana Șerban, "The Primitive Immaterial Legacy Behind Brâncuși's Modernist Tangible Forms of Culture", 2018
https://hermeneia.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/11_Serban.pdf
Roxana Zanea, "From Paul Gauguin to Constantin Brâncuși. In Search of the Primitive (II)"
https://matricea.ro/de-la-paul-gauguin-la-constantin-brancusi-in-cautarea-primitivului-ii/
Stella Polyzoidou, "Get to Know Constantin Brancusi: Patriarch of Modern Sculpture", 2021
https://www.thecollector.com/constantin-brancusi-modern-sculpture/
Viorica Răduţă, "Brâncuși, spre o artă a templuului (2)", 2023
https://citeste-ma.ro/brancusi-spre-o-arta-a-templuuli-2/
Virginia Barbu, "In the Labyrinth with Barbu Brezianu. Brâncuși, Music and Dance" https://www.istoria-artei.ro/resources/files/SCIA.AP2011-11-V.%20Barbu-Brezianu-Brancusi.pdf
William Stanley Rubin and William Rubin, "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Brâncuși, 1984
https://books.google.ro/books/about/Primitivism_in_20th_Century_Art_Brancusi.html?id=glK50AEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
Mathematical-physical and metaphysical equations in Brâncuși's Monumental Complex
motto: "This is the message of my Pillar, guarded by the Table and the Gate… To burn like a flame… To transform yourself into lightning, connecting heaven and earth" (Brâncuși)
The President of Romania recently promulgated the law declaring 2026 as the "Year of Brâncuși" and the exhibitions of the master from Hobița continued this year touring major capitals of the world: Paris, Rome, Vienna and Amsterdam.
In context, it is worth highlighting something less well-known.
As early as 2017, Ion Popescu Bradiceni wrote about Brâncuși in Gorjeanul: "Also possessing the gift of narration, the great sculptor intuited quantum physics half a century earlier" (https://www.gorjeanul.ro/skriitorul-constantin-brancusi/).
I wholeheartedly agree with this hypothesis.
According to several exclusively Romanian sources, including CentrulBrancusi.ro (Doru Strîmbulescu, 2016), European sculpture was marked by three great figures: Phidias in antiquity, Michelangelo during the Renaissance, and Brâncuși in the 20th century.
The Greek letter Phi (φ) was introduced as a symbol for the golden ratio, 1.618:1, in reference to Phidias. It was said of Phidias: "When he sculpted gods, he integrated the golden ratio; when he sculpted mortals, he did not."
Several studies suggest that Michelangelo hid scientific knowledge in the Sistine Chapel.
But Brancusi?
The same question is asked by Doru Strîmbulescu: “Did the great sculptor bury in the stone of the Table of Silence and the Gate of the Kiss, or in the rhomboidal shapes of the Endless Column, a meaning, a truth, a significance, a code that we cannot decipher?”
Constantin Noica’s answer to the question of whether Brancusi had such intentions is affirmative. The idea that the ensemble was “designed as a becoming” could be proven by a simple measurement. However, Noica refrained from making that measurement, stating: “We feared that reality might not match the legend, causing it to collapse. Or, on the contrary, that it might match exactly, and the legend would lose its accuracy.”
Did the Sistine Chapel lose something because Michelangelo added a scientific dimension, or the gods sculpted by Phidias with the golden ratio? Certainly not.
Similarly, if Brancusi integrated quantum physics into his Ensemble, he did not lose precision, for quantum physics opens the door to pure magic. Nothing exact can fully understand it. We only tame it statistically, under the empire of probabilities.
"You don't know what I'm leaving you here"
These are the enigmatic words of the creator of the trilogy from Târgu Jiu However, calculations hidden by Brâncuși under skillful decimals can put the ensemble in a new light. Specifically, according to Wikipedia: The Table of Silence is 0.45 + 0.45 meters high, the Kissing Gate is 5.13 meters high and the Infinity Column is 29.35 meters high. I noticed that the square of 5.13 is the same as the product of 0.9 and 29.35. That is, we have equality, speaking of heights, between the ratios Table of Silence / Kissing Gate and Kissing Gate / Infinity Column.
This geometric-focal ratio reflects a fundamental law of optics. And the fact that Brâncuși was a luminous creator is revealed by several of his creations.
Furthermore, in the book “Brâncuși or How the Turtle Learned to Fly”, Moni Stănilă captures the master from Hobița as a mischievous man who liked to play cards. “Brâncuși is already making a philosophy of life out of confusing people, so that he can understand what they are made of,” warns Moni Stănilă.
So what would be the meaning of the Târgu Jiu riddle?
Here are some clues: having moved to Paris, Brâncuși was close to the sources and crucible of quantum mechanics. So it is not surprising that his monumental triplet can be seen as a huge model of the legendary micro-experiment launched by Thomas Young, but substantiated by the French Duke Louise de Broglie, a contemporary of Brâncuși.
See the image at the end.
The Column of Infinity represents the photon, the electron or another elementary particle of matter. In addition to the suggestion of trajectory, the shape of the Column formed by the “beads” dear to Brâncuși, also includes the undulating aspect, that is, precisely what Louise de Broglie postulated at the basis of quantum physics.
The Gate of the Kiss is the double slit in the experiment, that is, the two gates through which the piece of matter or the photon must pass in order to highlight its undulating character. Once again, Brancusi seems to have been a fool, because by calling it and giving it the appearance of a Gate with a single wide opening, he conceals the pair of slits that are, in fact, sculpted kisses. And the fact that the double slits are also narrow is exactly the idea of the quantum experiment.
Finally, the Table of Silence is the image of the decomposition, of the "fraying" of the micro-particle upon mysterious passage through the double slit. This is in the conditions in which it is notorious in quantum mechanics that the micro-particle passed through two slits will "eat itself up", very strangely, but necessarily. Anyway, the Table of Silence seems to suggest a vision, on a huge scale, of the structure of the atom.
The Alley of Chairs only emphasizes even better this quantum metaphor of Brancusi.
Brâncuși's inclination towards the depths of matter, light and essences in general was part of the artist's inner structure.
"Those who say that my works are abstract are imbeciles; what they call abstract is the purest realism, because reality is not represented by the external form, but by the idea behind it, the essence of things. I polished the matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized that I could not find it, I stopped; it was as if someone unseen had touched my hands," explained Brâncuși of his effort to reach the boundaries of micro-matter.
Contemporary with "God does not play dice", Einstein's famous anti-quantum quote, Brâncuși had his own vision of divinity and the apple of knowledge. That is, Brancusi interfered between his own beliefs: "To create like a God" and "We can never reach God, but the courage to travel towards Him remains important".
Scientific art-exhibitions about Brancusi
A fascinating example in the sense of quantum aspects is the inclusion of Brancusi, between Einstein, Bach, Da Vinci and Marie Curie, in a contemporary artistic project Quanticisme, launched by the French painter-sculptor Servant-Ermes in 2014. This project promoted the collaboration between culture and science, suggesting that great thinkers from various fields could contribute to the progress of research.
Also, the painter Romeo Niram organized an exhibition Brancusi: E = mc2, in which, obviously, he made correlations with Einstein.
Conclusions
Although forged in recent years, in Romania, including politically by legislating 2026 as the Year of Brâncuși, the art of the master from Hobița is far from being exhausted, revealing depths that deserve to be explored especially from the perspective of Jungian psychology, one of the most profound modern psychologies.
The second part of the article has a subjective note, leaving it up to the reader or observer to accept or not the hypothesis that Brâncuși reflected in his work from Târgu Jiu the most enigmatic experiment of quantum physics. But it gives me undisguised pleasure to note that the article was published by dozens of cultural or news sites, especially in Romanian but also in Italian and English. Of course, I remain open to criticism and observations.
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